Best cafés and restaurants in Tugun
More than 20 places to eat sit within a two to five minute walk of the apartments, strung along Golden Four Drive behind the beach. You will not need the car once. Here is where we send guests, and when.
Coffee first
Taste & Co opens at 5am and Zest and Sticky Buns Patisserie at 5.30am, so the surfers and the early flights are covered. Niche & Co on Golden Four Drive is the one guests talk about afterwards, for the coffee and the açaí bowls. Good Day Coffee is the other Tugun favourite, a small place known for its toasties and avocado toast. Zest does a generous cooked breakfast.
Brunch and lunch
House of Hubert is the sit-down brunch spot, with a long menu and a bug burger people drive for. Cafe Caribou is fresh, quick and reliable, and Hidden Gem Coffee on Station Street is a quiet beachside café that turns out pizzas later in the day. Five minutes up the highway at Cornerstone Stores, Stable Coffee Kitchen does specialty coffee and a plant-forward menu in a two-storey brick-and-concrete space worth the walk on its own.
Dinner, seven nights
- Luna Rossa, authentic Italian, Monday to Saturday 5.30pm to 9pm. Book on weekends.
- & Pizzeria, seafood, steak and pasta, Monday to Saturday 5.30pm to 9pm.
- KAHANI, Indian, seven nights 5pm to 9pm, which makes it our Sunday answer.
- Sala Thai, Wednesday to Monday 4pm to 10pm.
- Viet Hoa Gardens, Vietnamese and Chinese, Tuesday to Sunday 5pm to 9pm.
- Backbone Bar & Kitchen, Wednesday and Thursday 5pm to 10pm, Friday 4pm to 11pm, Saturday 2pm to 11pm, Sunday noon to 10pm. The late option.
- Domingos Pizza, daily 11am to 10pm, and Zambrero daily 10am to 8.30pm for a quick one.
Tugun is a small town and most kitchens close at 9pm, so eat early and walk home along the beach.
The surf clubs
Tugun Surf Club is 50 metres along the sand, the easiest drink in town with the beach in front of you; the bistro serves lunch 11.30am to 2.30pm and dinner from 5.30pm, seven days. Currumbin Beach Vikings, a short walk south beside Elephant Rock, has a restaurant with panoramic ocean views and live music on weekends.
Cooking in
Tugun Supermarket is open daily 6am to 7pm and IGA 6am to 8pm, both within five minutes, with BWS for a bottle shop until 9pm. Tugun Fruit & Flowers is the greengrocer, and does takeaway açaí too. On Saturday mornings the Palm Beach Currumbin Farmers' Market runs from early until around 11.30am at the high school on Thrower Drive, and on Friday evenings the Sanctuary Markets bring street food from a dozen countries to the Wildlife Sanctuary, 850 metres up the road.
Good to know
Is everything within walking distance of Sandbox Apartments?
Yes. The cafés, restaurants, two supermarkets and the bottle shop are two to five minutes on foot along Golden Four Drive, and Tugun Surf Club is 50 metres along the beach.
Where is the earliest coffee in Tugun?
Taste & Co opens at 5am daily; Zest and Sticky Buns Patisserie open at 5.30am.
Where can we eat on a Sunday night?
KAHANI (Indian) is open seven nights, Sala Thai and Viet Hoa Gardens are open Sundays, Backbone Bar & Kitchen runs noon to 10pm, and Domingos does pizza until 10pm.
Can we cook in the apartment?
Every apartment is fully self-contained with a kitchen, dining area, cookware and an espresso machine, and the supermarkets are a five-minute walk.
Keep reading
Things to do in Tugun and Currumbin with kids
Most of what children want from a beach holiday is within a ten-minute walk of our front door: a patrolled beach, still creek water, a wildlife sanctuary and a bakery.
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary: a visitor guide from Tugun
The Sanctuary is the reason many of our guests choose Tugun over the rest of the coast.
Where to swim and surf near Tugun
From the balcony you can read the surf before you walk down.